Outatime!: A Muppets/Back to the Future Crossover

I thought of waiting to post this one sometime later in the year or early next year, but I decided to go ahead and post it now just for the heck of it! So, here it is, "Outatime!" (a Muppets/Back to the Future crossover featuring a new take on original characters and a story that mixes past and current Muppet movies with BTTF mythology).

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Chapter One: Back to the Future​

Thursday
October 27th, 1995
11:00 AM​

Three sonic booms rang and three flashes emerged upon the bridge that crossed Eastwood Ravine before what appeared to be a vehicle arrived seemingly from nowhere zoomed down the tracks and into the Hill Valley area. The vehicle was a DeLorean, except it appeared to have been modified with machinery from its front bumper to its rear engine, giving it a rather odd appearance. It was coated with dirt and grind and its wheel were absent, hence why it currently worked as a locomotive on the railroad tracks. As it passed through railroad crossings, many drivers waiting behind the boom barriers couldn’t believe what they were seeing. How did a DeLorean (and a bizarre one at that) get on the railroad tracks?

Drivers who looked closely at the oddly designed DeLorean noticed that there were two passengers inside – dressed in old west clothes. What they did not know was that these passengers were time travelers. Doctor Angela “Doc” Brown, the inventor of the whacked-out DeLorean on the train tracks, and her young companion, Sean McFly, survived an insane trip to the year 1885 after pulling off a creative experiment that involved pushing the DeLorean time machine up to 88 miles per hour, thus engaging temporal displacement.

McFly gazed out the window to see the familiar 1995 atmosphere pass by them and smiled. “Doc, we made it! We’re back!”

Angela slumped down in the driver’s seat and sighed in relief. “Thank God! When we got near that buffer, I thought for sure we were done for.” She patted McFly on the shoulder and added, “You saved my life with that handy board of yours.”

He noticed how she indicated the Hoverboard – the special, floating, skateboard-like device that he kept from their trip to 2035. “Well, when I saw you hanging for your life from the side of that train, I had to do something.”

She leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “You’re a lifesaver!”

Sean smiled just as he felt the car come to a halt on the tracks. “So how do we move the DeLorean off the…?”

Before he could finish his question, the sound of a diesel horn exploded near them, prompting them to turn their heads forward and see a diesel locomotive heading straight toward them. Immediately, the two time travelers leapt out of the DeLorean from opposite sides and avoided the violent collision that led to the imminent destruction of the DeLorean. Angela and Sean continued to watch the passing locomotive smash every bit of the time machine until it had completely passed and there was nothing else left for it to crush. They reemerged on the train tracks and looked down upon what used to be the flux capacitor and time circuits, letting out one last spark before going dead.

McFly looked over to the Doc and saw a few tears stream from her eyes. “I’m sorry, Doc,” he softly said to her.

Angela smiled, sniffling slightly and wiping away her tears. “It’s alright. It’s just what I wanted, remember? Time travel has become much too dangerous as we found out from our previous experiences. I’ll move on to other inventions, of course.” She chuckled and added, “Heck, I might even take up Bunsen’s offer to work at Muppet Labs.” She placed an arm around her youthful companion. “The future’s going to be just fine for me…and you, too.”

Sean smiled back; the hopeful look on her face was enough to convince him that she would be able to move on with no difficulty. The two travelers soon walked away from the wreckage – McFly with his Hoverboard still in hand and Doc Brown with her self-confidence still intact.

Everyone applauded once Robin blew out the candles from the gorgeous three-tiered birthday cake made by Pete, who was immensely proud of the tasty creation and the little frog it was made for. Surrounded by his family and friends inside Pete’s Luncheonette, Robin felt truly loved. “Hey, thanks, everybody. This was the best surprise party I’ve ever had!”

“Well, you truly deserve it, Robin.” Kermit said. “Turning six is a pretty big step for a small frog like yourself.”

Robin nodded in agreement with his uncle’s sentiment before he turned and gave his praise to Pete. “And thank you for this wonderful cake, Pete. It looks so good!”

“What did you wish for, Robin?” Jenny asked.

The tiny frog gazed amongst the crowd of family and friends standing before him; he saw Kermit, Jenny, Pete, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter, Bunsen, Beaker, Camilla, The Electric Mayhem Band, Rizzo and the other rats, and even Sean McFly all there just for him. “Gosh…I got just about everyone and everything I could possibly ever want here with me now.” Yet he frowned as he added, “Just wish Doc Brown could be here.”

The others exchanged a few nervous glances upon hearing this. Soon all eyes were on Sean, who felt a bit sheepish about the absence of his best friend. “Oh…well, there’s no doubt Doc would’ve loved to be here for ya, Rob. She’s just been really busy these past few days.”

“Few days?” Scooter repeated Sean’s words in surprise. “More like a few months!”

“She’s been cooped up in that garage of hers for a long time now.” Gonzo added.

“Yeah, what has she been up to?” Jenny wondered aloud.

Everyone’s curiosity of Angela “Doc” Brown brought upon commotion that suddenly distracted them from the real important thing of that evening – Robin’s birthday. The small frog tried to tell everyone that Doc Brown’s absence was nothing to be bothered over, but too many loud voices drowned out his own. Soon it took only the loud clang of a trashcan to silence them all, and they turned to see Joie Tannen, a 36-year-old brunette wearing a dirty grey t-shirt beneath a denim vest with ripped blue jeans and sneakers entering from the kitchen door and smoking a cigarette.

“Doc Brown! Doc Brown! Doc Brown!” The brunette grumbled in annoyance. “That’s all I ever freakin’ heard around this town these days!”

Pete shook his head in aggravation and disapproval over his newest employee and the unsanitary action she was performing in front of the disgusted group. “Tannen! What I tell you about smoking in restaurant? If you gonna smoke, smoke outside; not inside where there are customers!”

Joie removed the cigarette from her lips, blowing out one last puff of smoke before extinguishing it on the side of the trashcan that she brought in. She saluted to Pete and said, “Sorry, boss. Won’t happen again.” Before she exited the room, she noticed Sean looking her way, shaking his head at her. Offended by his action, she exclaimed, “Whaddya lookin’ at, butthead?”

Sean did not bother saying a word back to her as she exited the kitchen. If Joie’s sudden appearance had done some good, it was bringing some silence into the room long enough for McFly to bring some order back in. “Hey, guys. Forget about Tannen and let’s not worry about Doc. This is Robin’s night. Let’s give the little guy a party!”

Everyone cheered in agreement with Sean, resuming the interrupted birthday celebration. Of course, Sean still had thoughts of his absent friend plaguing his mind; it troubled him so much that he barely noticed Bunsen Honeydew approaching and gently tugging his red down vest. Looking down at Bunsen, McFly saw the Muppet scientist gesturing for him to join him at a booth located at the nearest corner of the room. The two sat down at the booth and were soon joined by Beaker as their private conversation began.

“What is it, Bunsen?” Sean inquired.

Bunsen gazed back to the others, checking to see if anyone was looking their way or possibly eavesdropping. Once he saw they were in the clear, Bunsen refocused on the youth and said, “Beaker and I have it on good authority that Doctor Brown is rebuilding her DeLorean time machine.”

Sean appeared very surprised to hear this. “What? She told me that she’d given up the whole time-traveling gig.”

“It doesn’t appear that way.” Bunsen indicated, and Beaker followed with a few meeps. “Beaker and I stopped by her lab yesterday to borrow items for an experiment, and we spotted a car-shaped object under a tan tarp. She was very fond of that invention. She told Beaker and me how it was her ‘greatest invention ever.’ And after it had been destroyed, she was crushed…er…metaphorically speaking, of course.”

Sean calmly bit his lower lip, trying to comprehend the reasons for Angela rebuilding the time machine. Every guess only led to more questions for him. “I need to see her right away.” He then quickly reminded himself of the birthday party he was currently attending. “Wait. What am I thinking? I just can’t leave Robin…”

“Beaker and I have you covered.” Bunsen delightfully said before retrieving a small black, cube-shaped device from under his lab coat. He set it on their table and lightly touched the top of the cube, which activated a beam of light from one side of the cube and projected an extremely lifelike hologram of Sean McFly that wore the exact clothes he wore at that second. Before anyone could see that there were two McFlys in the restaurant, Bunsen switched the device off, removing the hologram. “Behold! An invention courtesy of Doctor Angela Brown! While you’re away, your replacement will take over for you, copying all of your gestures and speech.”

Seeing that hologram of himself brought back flashbacks of nearly running into his other self in 1955 for Sean; but he admitted to the idea of a copycat taking his place at Robin’s birthday was a brilliant idea. “That’s real heavy, Bunsen!”

“Actually it is very light.” Bunsen remarked, indicating the weight of the cube as he picked it up for demonstration.

Sean shook his head, seeming to have heard that joke quite a bit lately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joie appreciated being alone long enough to take a smoke outside Pete’s Luncheonette; however, deep down, she hated it, especially when she was so hungry. The cake Pete baked for Robin looked delicious; the image of it and the party arranged for the little frog was engraved in Joie’s mind. Tannen never had such an “extravagant” celebration when she turned six years old; all she ever got on her sixth birthday was a phone call from both of her parents telling her how great their Hawaiian vacation was. She felt like she had every right in the world to be jealous of Robin, but not even a smoke from her cigarette helped remove the jealousy.

As she leaned her head back against the brick wall and blew out a strand of smoke from her mouth in the alley, she looked to her right and spotted Sean McFly leaving Pete’s Luncheonette with a slice of cake sealed inside a Rubbermaid container in hand. At first Joie wondered why the kid would leave the party while it was still young; but after a short moment, she did not care. What did interest her was the strange pink board that he retrieved from seemingly nowhere. Is that what the kids are ridin’ these days? Pathetic, Joie thought with a snicker.

However, what she had seen next nearly made her choke on her cigarette. McFly threw down the pink board on the sidewalk, and it hovered a foot off the ground before Sean jumped on it and took off faster than the blink of an eye. Joie’s cigarette dropped from her mouth in shock of what she saw. She hurriedly moved to the end of the alley and looked around the corner to see McFly hovering his way through the town square, riding the board like he would one of his skateboards.

I thought of waiting to post this one sometime later in the year or early next year, but I decided to go ahead and post it now just for the heck of it! So, here it is, "Outatime!" (a Muppets/Back to the Future crossover featuring a new take on original characters and a story that mixes past and current Muppet movies with BTTF mythology).

---------------------

Chapter One: Back to the Future​

Thursday​

October 27th, 1995​

11:00 AM​

Three sonic booms rang and three flashes emerged upon the bridge that crossed Eastwood Ravine before what appeared to be a vehicle arrived seemingly from nowhere zoomed down the tracks and into the Hill Valley area. The vehicle was a DeLorean, except it appeared to have been modified with machinery from its front bumper to its rear engine, giving it a rather odd appearance. It was coated with dirt and grind and its wheel were absent, hence why it currently worked as a locomotive on the railroad tracks. As it passed through railroad crossings, many drivers waiting behind the boom barriers couldn’t believe what they were seeing. How did a DeLorean (and a bizarre one at that) get on the railroad tracks?

Drivers who looked closely at the oddly designed DeLorean noticed that there were two passengers inside – dressed in old west clothes. What they did not know was that these passengers were time travelers. Doctor Angela “Doc” Brown, the inventor of the whacked-out DeLorean on the train tracks, and her young companion, Sean McFly, survived an insane trip to the year 1885 after pulling off a creative experiment that involved pushing the DeLorean time machine up to 88 miles per hour, thus engaging temporal displacement.

McFly gazed out the window to see the familiar 1995 atmosphere pass by them and smiled. “Doc, we made it! We’re back!”

Angela slumped down in the driver’s seat and sighed in relief. “Thank God! When we got near that buffer, I thought for sure we were done for.” She patted McFly on the shoulder and added, “You saved my life with that handy board of yours.”

He noticed how she indicated the Hoverboard – the special, floating, skateboard-like device that he kept from their trip to 2035. “Well, when I saw you hanging for your life from the side of that train, I had to do something.”

She leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “You’re a lifesaver!”

Sean smiled just as he felt the car come to a halt on the tracks. “So how do we move the DeLorean off the…?”

Before he could finish his question, the sound of a diesel horn exploded near them, prompting them to turn their heads forward and see a diesel locomotive heading straight toward them. Immediately, the two time travelers leapt out of the DeLorean from opposite sides and avoided the violent collision that led to the imminent destruction of the DeLorean. Angela and Sean continued to watch the passing locomotive smash every bit of the time machine until it had completely passed and there was nothing else left for it to crush. They reemerged on the train tracks and looked down upon what used to be the flux capacitor and time circuits, letting out one last spark before going dead.

McFly looked over to the Doc and saw a few tears stream from her eyes. “I’m sorry, Doc,” he softly said to her.

Angela smiled, sniffling slightly and wiping away her tears. “It’s alright. It’s just what I wanted, remember? Time travel has become much too dangerous as we found out from our previous experiences. I’ll move on to other inventions, of course.” She chuckled and added, “Heck, I might even take up Bunsen’s offer to work at Muppet Labs.” She placed an arm around her youthful companion. “The future’s going to be just fine for me…and you, too.”

Sean smiled back; the hopeful look on her face was enough to convince him that she would be able to move on with no difficulty. The two travelers soon walked away from the wreckage – McFly with his Hoverboard still in hand and Doc Brown with her self-confidence still intact.

Everyone applauded once Robin blew out the candles from the gorgeous three-tiered birthday cake made by Pete, who was immensely proud of the tasty creation and the little frog it was made for. Surrounded by his family and friends inside Pete’s Luncheonette, Robin felt truly loved. “Hey, thanks, everybody. This was the best surprise party I’ve ever had!”

“Well, you truly deserve it, Robin.” Kermit said. “Turning six is a pretty big step for a small frog like yourself.”

Robin nodded in agreement with his uncle’s sentiment before he turned and gave his praise to Pete. “And thank you for this wonderful cake, Pete. It looks so good!”

“What did you wish for, Robin?” Jenny asked.

The tiny frog gazed amongst the crowd of family and friends standing before him; he saw Kermit, Jenny, Pete, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter, Bunsen, Beaker, Camilla, The Electric Mayhem Band, Rizzo and the other rats, and even Sean McFly all there just for him. “Gosh…I got just about everyone and everything I could possibly ever want here with me now.” Yet he frowned as he added, “Just wish Doc Brown could be here.”

The others exchanged a few nervous glances upon hearing this. Soon all eyes were on Sean, who felt a bit sheepish about the absence of his best friend. “Oh…well, there’s no doubt Doc would’ve loved to be here for ya, Rob. She’s just been really busy these past few days.”

“Few days?” Scooter repeated Sean’s words in surprise. “More like a few months!”

“She’s been cooped up in that garage of hers for a long time now.” Gonzo added.

“Yeah, what has she been up to?” Jenny wondered aloud.

Everyone’s curiosity of Angela “Doc” Brown brought upon commotion that suddenly distracted them from the real important thing of that evening – Robin’s birthday. The small frog tried to tell everyone that Doc Brown’s absence was nothing to be bothered over, but too many loud voices drowned out his own. Soon it took only the loud clang of a trashcan to silence them all, and they turned to see Joie Tannen, a 36-year-old brunette wearing a dirty grey t-shirt beneath a denim vest with ripped blue jeans and sneakers entering from the kitchen door and smoking a cigarette.

“Doc Brown! Doc Brown! Doc Brown!” The brunette grumbled in annoyance. “That’s all I ever freakin’ heard around this town these days!”

Pete shook his head in aggravation and disapproval over his newest employee and the unsanitary action she was performing in front of the disgusted group. “Tannen! What I tell you about smoking in restaurant? If you gonna smoke, smoke outside; not inside where there are customers!”

Joie removed the cigarette from her lips, blowing out one last puff of smoke before extinguishing it on the side of the trashcan that she brought in. She saluted to Pete and said, “Sorry, boss. Won’t happen again.” Before she exited the room, she noticed Sean looking her way, shaking his head at her. Offended by his action, she exclaimed, “Whaddya lookin’ at, butthead?”

Sean did not bother saying a word back to her as she exited the kitchen. If Joie’s sudden appearance had done some good, it was bringing some silence into the room long enough for McFly to bring some order back in. “Hey, guys. Forget about Tannen and let’s not worry about Doc. This is Robin’s night. Let’s give the little guy a party!”

Everyone cheered in agreement with Sean, resuming the interrupted birthday celebration. Of course, Sean still had thoughts of his absent friend plaguing his mind; it troubled him so much that he barely noticed Bunsen Honeydew approaching and gently tugging his red down vest. Looking down at Bunsen, McFly saw the Muppet scientist gesturing for him to join him at a booth located at the nearest corner of the room. The two sat down at the booth and were soon joined by Beaker as their private conversation began.

“What is it, Bunsen?” Sean inquired.

Bunsen gazed back to the others, checking to see if anyone was looking their way or possibly eavesdropping. Once he saw they were in the clear, Bunsen refocused on the youth and said, “Beaker and I have it on good authority that Doctor Brown is rebuilding her DeLorean time machine.”

Sean appeared very surprised to hear this. “What? She told me that she’d given up the whole time-traveling gig.”

“It doesn’t appear that way.” Bunsen indicated, and Beaker followed with a few meeps. “Beaker and I stopped by her lab yesterday to borrow items for an experiment, and we spotted a car-shaped object under a tan tarp. She was very fond of that invention. She told Beaker and me how it was her ‘greatest invention ever.’ And after it had been destroyed, she was crushed…er…metaphorically speaking, of course.”

Sean calmly bit his lower lip, trying to comprehend the reasons for Angela rebuilding the time machine. Every guess only led to more questions for him. “I need to see her right away.” He then quickly reminded himself of the birthday party he was currently attending. “Wait. What am I thinking? I just can’t leave Robin…”

“Beaker and I have you covered.” Bunsen delightfully said before retrieving a small black, cube-shaped device from under his lab coat. He set it on their table and lightly touched the top of the cube, which activated a beam of light from one side of the cube and projected an extremely lifelike hologram of Sean McFly that wore the exact clothes he wore at that second. Before anyone could see that there were two McFlys in the restaurant, Bunsen switched the device off, removing the hologram. “Behold! An invention courtesy of Doctor Angela Brown! While you’re away, your replacement will take over for you, copying all of your gestures and speech.”

Seeing that hologram of himself brought back flashbacks of nearly running into his other self in 1955 for Sean; but he admitted to the idea of a copycat taking his place at Robin’s birthday was a brilliant idea. “That’s real heavy, Bunsen!”

“Actually it is very light.” Bunsen remarked, indicating the weight of the cube as he picked it up for demonstration.

Sean shook his head, seeming to have heard that joke quite a bit lately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joie appreciated being alone long enough to take a smoke outside Pete’s Luncheonette; however, deep down, she hated it, especially when she was so hungry. The cake Pete baked for Robin looked delicious; the image of it and the party arranged for the little frog was engraved in Joie’s mind. Tannen never had such an “extravagant” celebration when she turned six years old; all she ever got on her sixth birthday was a phone call from both of her parents telling her how great their Hawaiian vacation was. She felt like she had every right in the world to be jealous of Robin, but not even a smoke from her cigarette helped remove the jealousy.

As she leaned her head back against the brick wall and blew out a strand of smoke from her mouth in the alley, she looked to her right and spotted Sean McFly leaving Pete’s Luncheonette with a slice of cake sealed inside a Rubbermaid container in hand. At first Joie wondered why the kid would leave the party while it was still young; but after a short moment, she did not care. What did interest her was the strange pink board that he retrieved from seemingly nowhere. Is that what the kids are ridin’ these days? Pathetic, Joie thought with a snicker.

However, what she had seen next nearly made her choke on her cigarette. McFly threw down the pink board on the sidewalk, and it hovered a foot off the ground before Sean jumped on it and took off faster than the blink of an eye. Joie’s cigarette dropped from her mouth in shock of what she saw. She hurriedly moved to the end of the alley and looked around the corner to see McFly hovering his way through the town square, riding the board like he would one of his skateboards.

“What the…?”

END OF CHAPTER ONE​

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Wow! I just love crossovers! They are so much fun! Welcome, muppetwriter to the MC, the website that will let you come up with crazy stories and comedy or drama perhaps. More plz!

Sean finally reached Angela’s garage, which served as both her lab and her home after her mansion burned down sometime in the early 1970s. The Hoverboard had gotten him to the location much sooner than he anticipated; he wondered upon his arrival if it could get him back to Pete’s in time to catch the rest of Robin’s birthday party. As he hovered right onto the driveway, Sean found Sprocket (Angela’s intelligent sheepdog –inherited from her Uncle Jerome) standing in front of the closed entrance to the garage. McFly stopped his Hoverboard right in next to Sprocket, kneeling over to playfully rub his head, giving him a blissful greeting.

“Hey there, Sprocket! How’s it going, boy?” The sheepdog barked a happy remark that Sean, of course, did not understand but knew it was a positive. “Have you seen Doc anywhere?”

Sprocket pointed towards the closed garage door and, as if on cue, it opened to reveal the fogged interior of Angela Brown’s garage. A pair of red/orange lights lit through the heavy fog and emerged out of it along with a brand new DeLorean time machine. From Sean’s perspective, it looked very similar to the old one, except it was coated entirely in gold and looked slightly elongated. This entrance for the new and improved DeLorean felt like déjà vu to Sean, as the first DeLorean made a similar entrance in the empty parking lot of Lone Pine Mall (formerly Twin Pines Mall) four months ago.

The driver’s side gull wing door flew open and, as Sean expected, Angela stepped out in blue jeans, a brown trench coat, and a pink top, surprised to see Sean standing on the driveway with Sprocket and looking not so much surprised when he saw the DeLorean for the first time. “Sean?! What’re you doing here?”

“Nothing much – just checking out your ‘latest’ experiment,” he answered while gesturing to the new DeLorean.

Angela’s eyes darted towards the golden vehicle near her and she acted a bit sheepish. “Well, uh…this is…a different DeLorean.”

“I can see that from the gold job, Doc.” McFly jested. “But does it travel through time like the old one?”

Brown chuckled. “Of course not. It…erm…” She stumbled on words that would try to convince Sean of the opposite of what he was thinking, but there was no fooling the youth.

As the inventor tried covering her tracks, the passenger side gull wing door suddenly flew open, much to the surprise of Sean, who expected Angela to be the only one in the car. Two boys stepped out of the DeLorean from the other side – one with short, spiky deep red hair wearing an orange and off-white striped t-shirt, blue cargo shorts with large pockets and the other with thick, scruffy leaf-green hair wearing a collared beige shirt with a button, very high-waisted dark purple pants with a light purple belt and black tennis shoes. The boy with the green hair carried a clipboard while the redheaded one told Angela, “The test was successful, Doctor Brown. Eighty-eight miles per hour, just like its predecessor.”

Surprised to see the boys, Sean turned to Angela and asked, “Who are they? Don’t remember seeing them around town before.” She did not answer him, which prompted Sean to force the truth out of her. “Doc, c’mon. Time to be real. I know you’ve built another time machine.”

Angela sighed. “I just miss the thrill of it all, Sean. Just the remarkable feeling of accelerating at the top speed and going anytime I want!”

“But what about the ‘Betterment of Mankind?’ Isn’t that the speech you gave me back when we were stuck in 1885 and you wanted the DeLorean destroyed?” Sean reminded her.

She quickly shushed him after he brought up that point. “Not in front of Phineas and Ferb. I haven’t told them about that. It might be too sensitive of a subject.”

Sean looked back to her two younger companions, finally learning of their names. “Phineas and Ferb, eh? Are they from around here?”

“Nah. I picked them up from the year 2008.” Angela explained. “They saw the DeLorean and knew instantly that it was a time machine. Really bright kids, these two.” She then noticed the container Sean was holding and the item inside of it. “Hey, is that a birthday cake? Whose…?” It dawned on her before she could continue asking the question. A hand went to the left side of her face as it registered frustration. “Oh, no. I missed it, didn’t I?”

“Uh, everything’s cool, guys.” Sean spoke for his friend before handing his Hoverboard over to them. “Here…check this out. Something I picked up from the year 2035. It’s called a…”

“Hoverboard.” Phineas finished his statement, much to McFly’s surprise. “We blueprinted this idea in our year. Glad to see it’ll be on the market when we’re thirty-nine.” He then turned to Ferb and said, “C’mon, Ferb. I know what we’re gonna do for the next few hours.”

Once the boys retreated into Angela’s garage, Sean refocused on his disgruntled best friend. “Look, Doc. The party’s still going on back at Pete’s. Why don’t we just swing by there and spend the rest of the night giving the little fella a great one?”

Angela looked to him and smiled over his brilliant idea. “Sounds good.”

Sean finally reached Angela’s garage, which served as both her lab and her home after her mansion burned down sometime in the early 1970s. The Hoverboard had gotten him to the location much sooner than he anticipated; he wondered upon his arrival if it could get him back to Pete’s in time to catch the rest of Robin’s birthday party. As he hovered right onto the driveway, Sean found Sprocket (Angela’s intelligent sheepdog –inherited from her Uncle Jerome) standing in front of the closed entrance to the garage. McFly stopped his Hoverboard right in next to Sprocket, kneeling over to playfully rub his head, giving him a blissful greeting.

“Hey there, Sprocket! How’s it going, boy?” The sheepdog barked a happy remark that Sean, of course, did not understand but knew it was a positive. “Have you seen Doc anywhere?”

Sprocket pointed towards the closed garage door and, as if on cue, it opened to reveal the fogged interior of Angela Brown’s garage. A pair of red/orange lights lit through the heavy fog and emerged out of it along with a brand new DeLorean time machine. From Sean’s perspective, it looked very similar to the old one, except it was coated entirely in gold and looked slightly elongated. This entrance for the new and improved DeLorean felt like déjà vu to Sean, as the first DeLorean made a similar entrance in the empty parking lot of Lone Pine Mall (formerly Twin Pines Mall) four months ago.

The driver’s side gull wing door flew open and, as Sean expected, Angela stepped out in blue jeans, a brown trench coat, and a pink top, surprised to see Sean standing on the driveway with Sprocket and looking not so much surprised when he saw the DeLorean for the first time. “Sean?! What’re you doing here?”

“Nothing much – just checking out your ‘latest’ experiment,” he answered while gesturing to the new DeLorean.

Angela’s eyes darted towards the golden vehicle near her and she acted a bit sheepish. “Well, uh…this is…a different DeLorean.”

“I can see that from the gold job, Doc.” McFly jested. “But does it travel through time like the old one?”

Brown chuckled. “Of course not. It…erm…” She stumbled on words that would try to convince Sean of the opposite of what he was thinking, but there was no fooling the youth.

As the inventor tried covering her tracks, the passenger side gull wing door suddenly flew open, much to the surprise of Sean, who expected Angela to be the only one in the car. Two boys stepped out of the DeLorean from the other side – one with short, spiky deep red hair wearing an orange and off-white striped t-shirt, blue cargo shorts with large pockets and the other with thick, scruffy leaf-green hair wearing a collared beige shirt with a button, very high-waisted dark purple pants with a light purple belt and black tennis shoes. The boy with the green hair carried a clipboard while the redheaded one told Angela, “The test was successful, Doctor Brown. Eighty-eight miles per hour, just like its predecessor.”

Surprised to see the boys, Sean turned to Angela and asked, “Who are they? Don’t remember seeing them around town before.” She did not answer him, which prompted Sean to force the truth out of her. “Doc, c’mon. Time to be real. I know you’ve built another time machine.”

Angela sighed. “I just miss the thrill of it all, Sean. Just the remarkable feeling of accelerating at the top speed and going anytime I want!”

“But what about the ‘Betterment of Mankind?’ Isn’t that the speech you gave me back when we were stuck in 1885 and you wanted the DeLorean destroyed?” Sean reminded her.

She quickly shushed him after he brought up that point. “Not in front of Phineas and Ferb. I haven’t told them about that. It might be too sensitive of a subject.”

Sean looked back to her two younger companions, finally learning of their names. “Phineas and Ferb, eh? Are they from around here?”

“Nah. I picked them up from the year 2008.” Angela explained. “They saw the DeLorean and knew instantly that it was a time machine. Really bright kids, these two.” She then noticed the container Sean was holding and the item inside of it. “Hey, is that a birthday cake? Whose…?” It dawned on her before she could continue asking the question. A hand went to the left side of her face as it registered frustration. “Oh, no. I missed it, didn’t I?”

“Uh, everything’s cool, guys.” Sean spoke for his friend before handing his Hoverboard over to them. “Here…check this out. Something I picked up from the year 2035. It’s called a…”

“Hoverboard.” Phineas finished his statement, much to McFly’s surprise. “We blueprinted this idea in our year. Glad to see it’ll be on the market when we’re thirty-nine.” He then turned to Ferb and said, “C’mon, Ferb. I know what we’re gonna do for the next few hours.”

Once the boys retreated into Angela’s garage, Sean refocused on his disgruntled best friend. “Look, Doc. The party’s still going on back at Pete’s. Why don’t we just swing by there and spend the rest of the night giving the little fella a great one?”

Angela looked to him and smiled over his brilliant idea. “Sounds good.”

END OF CHAPTER TWO​

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SQUEEEEEE! I can't believe it! Sprocket in the 1970s. That's silly! I'm sure he was around with Doc in the 1980s. Duh! My goodness, muppetwriter, you just love to sneak in our favorite guys from different show

SQUEEEEEE! I can't believe it! Sprocket in the 1970s. That's silly! I'm sure he was around with Doc in the 1980s. Duh! My goodness, muppetwriter, you just love to sneak in our favorite guys from different show

Phineas and Ferb? SQUEEEEE! You are amzing!

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Haha! Thanks, muppetfan. I didn't originally plan for P&F to be in this story, but I figured it'd be awesome to have them since they're all about cool inventions and even time travel.

Angela followed her birthday greeting with a kiss on Robin’s tiny head; she could have sworn that she had seen him turn from green to red, which she would have then considered a scientific impossibility – since frogs cannot blush. “Wow! Thanks, Doc! I’m sure glad that you showed up!”

While Angela sat with Robin and Kermit at the table and had some of his birthday cake, Sean glanced through the front window frequently to check on the DeLorean as it was parked along the curb. Seeing how nervous he was about having the time machine out in the open, which Angela rarely ever allowed, Bunsen approached the young man and stated, “I’m certain the time machine will be quite safe where it is.”

Sean barely heard Bunsen address him. “Huh? Oh…yeah…right.”

“Hill Valley is the safest town ever.” Bunsen said. “You can leave a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk and a person won’t think twice about taking it.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

McFly was too heavily distracted to hear a word that the Muppet scientist was saying, which gave Bunsen an opportunity to try out a new invention of his. From out of his lab coat pocket, he retrieved a small blue pill that he dropped into the glass of apple cider that Sean was drinking while he was focused on the DeLorean. The pill dissolved into the liquid rapidly, making it entirely consumable without McFly detecting it as he took sips of the cider while continuing to keep an eye on the DeLorean. With his invention put to the test, Bunsen walked away from Sean smiling.

Bunsen approached the new boys that Angela introduced them to earlier upon their arrival. The green-haired one that went by the name of Ferb just finished a conversation with Beaker, actually communicating with the lab assistant of Bunsen Honeydew in his native tongue. “I never heard anyone so fluent in Beaker’s language,” Bunsen commented.

As Robin’s birthday party became increasingly festive with the appearance of Doctor Angela Brown, Joie poked her head in through the kitchen door to see if anyone was looking in the direction of the vehicle she, McFly, Sprocket, Phineas, and Ferb arrived in. She saw McFly keep an eye on the car for the past half hour until he got very tired, something he seemed to be surprised that he was, and went to the nearest booth to snooze. Tannen took this as her cue to sneak through the back of the restaurant and across the alley to reach the DeLorean unnoticed. As soon as she reached the driver’s side door, she swiftly opened it and slipped inside. Much to Tannen’s delight, the keys were still left in the ignition (apparently, Angela had the same ideology about Hill Valley as Bunsen). Turning the ignition, she started the DeLorean and took off down the street, still undetected by the people inside the luncheonette.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours had passed after Robin’s birthday party ended and the little frog left Pete’s with Kermit and half the rest of the Muppets. Angela, Bunsen, Beaker, Phineas, and Ferb noticed how Sean was still fast asleep at one of the booths. Seeing her young friend in his slumbering state, Angela gently stroked his short, curly black hair and smiled. “Bless his heart. Never thought he’d tucker himself out so fast. He seemed so wired up earlier when I brought the DeLorean into town.”

“He certainly was…until I gave him one of my ‘Instant Sleep’ pills, and then he was out like a light.” Bunsen informed.

Angela reacted to this information with surprise. “You what?! Bunsen, you never fully tested those pills! Sean could be out for twenty-four hours!”

“Oh, never worry, Doctor Brown. I only gave him one pill, which will have him unconscious for at least…” He looked at his wristwatch to estimate the time, “…five hours tops.”

“When did you give him the pill?” Phineas inquired.

“Five hours ago.” Bunsen answered.

Angela sighed over the harmless blunder of the absentminded Muppet scientist. “I better get him back to his house before his parents start worrying.”

While she started to pick McFly up from the booth to carry him with one of his arms over her shoulders, Phineas and Ferb gazed out the window and met with shock from the sight they had seen. “Um…that might be a problem, Doctor Brown.” She looked to Phineas, who pointed out the window to show her what he meant.

Looking out the window, Angela’s eyes grew wide in alarm when she saw that the DeLorean was no longer parked where it was. “Great Scott!” In her panic, she set Sean back down at the booth and rushed outside, not having a particular plan of action. Upon stepping outside, she felt a large gust of wind blow past her, causing strands of her dark red hair to briefly cover her eyes. Once she moved the hair from her eyes, Angela experienced an odd feeling, as if her surroundings had suddenly shifted around her while she was temporarily blinded. She gazed upon the courthouse square and realized that it looked the same as always; but then she heard a flicker and a buzz near her and noticed a green light shining at the corner of her eye.

Angela turned around to face Pete’s Luncheonette, only to discover an entirely different restaurant standing in its place: Doc Hopper’s Frog Legs. A neon sign hung above the entrance displaying the name of the “new” restaurant, illuminated in bright green colors, almost making it unreadable. Its sudden emergence was a huge clue to Brown that the time-space continuum had been disrupted by whomever stolen the DeLorean. Phineas and Ferb stepped out of Doc Hopper’s having noticed the shift in atmosphere while inside.

“Bunsen and Beaker disappeared right in front of us!” Phineas informed. “The continuum’s been disrupted! And, without knowing the exact date and time of the change, we have no way of reversing it!”

Shortly after the boys stepped out, Pete himself had done so. The former owner of his own luncheonette was wearing a Doc Hopper’s uniform that had different shades of green from the apron to the shoes. “Hey, you three! Take your sleeping friend out of restaurant! We’re closing!”

Angela, Phineas, and Ferb were less than surprised of the fact that Pete did not recognize any of them, not after the time shift. Not wanting to start a confrontation with this alternate version of Pete, they did as he ordered and took the still-unconscious Sean out of Doc Hopper’s, setting him down upon a nearby bench. Once they set the youth down, the three jumped in surprise when three sonic booms rang and three flashes emerged out of open space. Following the phenomenon, the DeLorean suddenly reappeared, roaring down the street and screeching to a halt. The driver’s side door flew open straightaway, and Joie Tannen stumbled out, clutching her torso and moaning in pain.

When she discovered Tannen as the culprit behind the DeLorean’s theft, Angela ran over to confront her. “Tannen! What did you do? When did you go?” She saw how Joie was practically sweating bullets while her entire body was literally fading in and out.

It was then that Joie Tannen completely vanished right before Angela, leaving her with only a cryptic message. Even though it was not enough to clue Brown in on what change might have occurred in history to create the current time shift, she did have the readouts from the time circuits to at least take her there. Jumping inside the DeLorean for a moment, Angela saw how the “Last Time Departed” readout had the date of June 22nd, 1979 read on there. As soon as she got this date entered as the “Destination Time,” Brown stuck her head out of the car and shouted to Phineas and Ferb, “Let’s get Sean in the car, boys. We now know when we’re going.”

Angela followed her birthday greeting with a kiss on Robin’s tiny head; she could have sworn that she had seen him turn from green to red, which she would have then considered a scientific impossibility – since frogs cannot blush. “Wow! Thanks, Doc! I’m sure glad that you showed up!”

While Angela sat with Robin and Kermit at the table and had some of his birthday cake, Sean glanced through the front window frequently to check on the DeLorean as it was parked along the curb. Seeing how nervous he was about having the time machine out in the open, which Angela rarely ever allowed, Bunsen approached the young man and stated, “I’m certain the time machine will be quite safe where it is.”

Sean barely heard Bunsen address him. “Huh? Oh…yeah…right.”

“Hill Valley is the safest town ever.” Bunsen said. “You can leave a hundred dollar bill on the sidewalk and a person won’t think twice about taking it.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

McFly was too heavily distracted to hear a word that the Muppet scientist was saying, which gave Bunsen an opportunity to try out a new invention of his. From out of his lab coat pocket, he retrieved a small blue pill that he dropped into the glass of apple cider that Sean was drinking while he was focused on the DeLorean. The pill dissolved into the liquid rapidly, making it entirely consumable without McFly detecting it as he took sips of the cider while continuing to keep an eye on the DeLorean. With his invention put to the test, Bunsen walked away from Sean smiling.

Bunsen approached the new boys that Angela introduced them to earlier upon their arrival. The green-haired one that went by the name of Ferb just finished a conversation with Beaker, actually communicating with the lab assistant of Bunsen Honeydew in his native tongue. “I never heard anyone so fluent in Beaker’s language,” Bunsen commented.

As Robin’s birthday party became increasingly festive with the appearance of Doctor Angela Brown, Joie poked her head in through the kitchen door to see if anyone was looking in the direction of the vehicle she, McFly, Sprocket, Phineas, and Ferb arrived in. She saw McFly keep an eye on the car for the past half hour until he got very tired, something he seemed to be surprised that he was, and went to the nearest booth to snooze. Tannen took this as her cue to sneak through the back of the restaurant and across the alley to reach the DeLorean unnoticed. As soon as she reached the driver’s side door, she swiftly opened it and slipped inside. Much to Tannen’s delight, the keys were still left in the ignition (apparently, Angela had the same ideology about Hill Valley as Bunsen). Turning the ignition, she started the DeLorean and took off down the street, still undetected by the people inside the luncheonette.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours had passed after Robin’s birthday party ended and the little frog left Pete’s with Kermit and half the rest of the Muppets. Angela, Bunsen, Beaker, Phineas, and Ferb noticed how Sean was still fast asleep at one of the booths. Seeing her young friend in his slumbering state, Angela gently stroked his short, curly black hair and smiled. “Bless his heart. Never thought he’d tucker himself out so fast. He seemed so wired up earlier when I brought the DeLorean into town.”

“He certainly was…until I gave him one of my ‘Instant Sleep’ pills, and then he was out like a light.” Bunsen informed.

Angela reacted to this information with surprise. “You what?! Bunsen, you never fully tested those pills! Sean could be out for twenty-four hours!”

“Oh, never worry, Doctor Brown. I only gave him one pill, which will have him unconscious for at least…” He looked at his wristwatch to estimate the time, “…five hours tops.”

“When did you give him the pill?” Phineas inquired.

“Five hours ago.” Bunsen answered.

Angela sighed over the harmless blunder of the absentminded Muppet scientist. “I better get him back to his house before his parents start worrying.”

While she started to pick McFly up from the booth to carry him with one of his arms over her shoulders, Phineas and Ferb gazed out the window and met with shock from the sight they had seen. “Um…that might be a problem, Doctor Brown.” She looked to Phineas, who pointed out the window to show her what he meant.

Looking out the window, Angela’s eyes grew wide in alarm when she saw that the DeLorean was no longer parked where it was. “Great Scott!” In her panic, she set Sean back down at the booth and rushed outside, not having a particular plan of action. Upon stepping outside, she felt a large gust of wind blow past her, causing strands of her dark red hair to briefly cover her eyes. Once she moved the hair from her eyes, Angela experienced an odd feeling, as if her surroundings had suddenly shifted around her while she was temporarily blinded. She gazed upon the courthouse square and realized that it looked the same as always; but then she heard a flicker and a buzz near her and noticed a green light shining at the corner of her eye.

Angela turned around to face Pete’s Luncheonette, only to discover an entirely different restaurant standing in its place: Doc Hopper’s Frog Legs. A neon sign hung above the entrance displaying the name of the “new” restaurant, illuminated in bright green colors, almost making it unreadable. Its sudden emergence was a huge clue to Brown that the time-space continuum had been disrupted by whomever stolen the DeLorean. Phineas and Ferb stepped out of Doc Hopper’s having noticed the shift in atmosphere while inside.

“Bunsen and Beaker disappeared right in front of us!” Phineas informed. “The continuum’s been disrupted! And, without knowing the exact date and time of the change, we have no way of reversing it!”

Shortly after the boys stepped out, Pete himself had done so. The former owner of his own luncheonette was wearing a Doc Hopper’s uniform that had different shades of green from the apron to the shoes. “Hey, you three! Take your sleeping friend out of restaurant! We’re closing!”

Angela, Phineas, and Ferb were less than surprised of the fact that Pete did not recognize any of them, not after the time shift. Not wanting to start a confrontation with this alternate version of Pete, they did as he ordered and took the still-unconscious Sean out of Doc Hopper’s, setting him down upon a nearby bench. Once they set the youth down, the three jumped in surprise when three sonic booms rang and three flashes emerged out of open space. Following the phenomenon, the DeLorean suddenly reappeared, roaring down the street and screeching to a halt. The driver’s side door flew open straightaway, and Joie Tannen stumbled out, clutching her torso and moaning in pain.

When she discovered Tannen as the culprit behind the DeLorean’s theft, Angela ran over to confront her. “Tannen! What did you do? When did you go?” She saw how Joie was practically sweating bullets while her entire body was literally fading in and out.

It was then that Joie Tannen completely vanished right before Angela, leaving her with only a cryptic message. Even though it was not enough to clue Brown in on what change might have occurred in history to create the current time shift, she did have the readouts from the time circuits to at least take her there. Jumping inside the DeLorean for a moment, Angela saw how the “Last Time Departed” readout had the date of June 22nd, 1979 read on there. As soon as she got this date entered as the “Destination Time,” Brown stuck her head out of the car and shouted to Phineas and Ferb, “Let’s get Sean in the car, boys. We now know when we’re going.”

END OF CHAPTER THREE​

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Doc Hopper's Frog Legs? Uh-oh! This does not sound good. And the date June 22nd 1979? Ah ha! That was the day when the Muppet Movie came out everywhere in theaters for the U.S. Oh boy! There better be an explanation. I know Kermit is not going to be happy if someone changed something during that year. More please, muppetwriter.

Sean’s body twitched as he regained consciousness; he was surprised to discover he had been asleep, having not remembered going to sleep in the first place. Through his bleary eyes, he could see someone near him and believed it to have been his mother. “Mom? Mom, is that you?” There was no answer, but he had no doubts that it was. “Ugh…had the craziest dream…that everything had changed…and I wasn’t in my own time…”

“Well, you’re good and safe now…back in good old 1979.”

Sean’s eyes snapped open, fully awake and shocked. “1979?!” He then realized that he was not waking up in his own bedroom but inside Angela’s brand new DeLorean time machine with Phineas and Ferb, who were sitting in the newly-installed backseat section. Phineas was the one that had been talking to him as he was regaining consciousness and smiling at him as he was completely alert. “W-What…What’s going on?!”

“Morning, Sean!” Phineas said. “Don’t panic. Everything’s fine. You’ve been asleep for five hours. Of course, seeing that we’re no longer in the present, time is irrelevant now.”

McFly looked out the windows of the DeLorean, seeing that the gold-plated time machine vehicle was parked out in the middle of the desert. Opening the passenger side door, he stepped out into sweltering heat. Once his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, he noticed Angela standing near the rear of the DeLorean and looking through a pair of binoculars at a particular area far in the distance. Immediately, he went up to Angela and yelled, “Doc! What the heck is going on here?”

Hearing his (angry) voice, Angela looked away from the binoculars and smiled at him. “Morning! Knew you’d wake up in time!”

“In time for what?” Sean inquired.

Angela handed her binoculars over to him and pointed in the direction she had been looking in through them. “That old town a few miles ahead is where our mission will begin.”

Through the pair of high-tech binoculars (established in the year 2035), Sean could see an Old West town exactly a few miles away from their location, just as Angela had described. At first Sean believed Phineas and Ferb were mistaken in the year, thinking that the presence of the town meant it was 1879 rather than 1979; but the readouts from the enhancement function of the binoculars showed him that it was merely a ghost town. However, none of this explained why he was brought to 1979 or what this “mission” Brown was referring to was all about. Before he could even start to ask, Phineas and Ferb suddenly approached.

“Twenty minutes, Doctor Brown.” Phineas informed.

Angela smiled. “My calculations are precisely on the tick. We’ll soon find out what reason Joie had in coming here.”

“I’ll explain on the way into the town.” Angela guaranteed. “C’mon, boys! Into the DeLorean!”

​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

​

Angela was relieved to not have seen that the Electric Mayhem bus had arrived yet in the ghost town; the last thing she wanted was for them to further disrupt the original timeline in which Kermit the Frog and his friends outsmarted Doc Hopper and his gang of thugs. She was certain that the confrontation between the two was the event that was disrupted, leading to the time shift in 1996. The DeLorean was parked right behind a saloon, kept out of sight from the Muppets or Hopper when they arrived. In the meantime, Angela and the boys kept watch for the other DeLorean – the one Joie had brought with her.

The whole situation greatly confused McFly. “I don’t get it, Doc. What would Tannen benefit from helping Doc…er…Hopper, I mean?”

“Before she was erased, Joie mentioned a man disrupting her own timeline, causing her disappearance from time.” Angela explained. “Doc Hopper had to be that man.”

“But…if Tannen was the only one to come out of the DeLorean when she arrived in the present, where was Hopper?” McFly curiously questioned.

“There was probably a dispute between them. And when Joie left 1979, it could be possible that Hopper did something to her timeline to negatively affect her future.” Brown deduced. “It could be a number of possibilities with time travel.”

“Well, for our sake, I hope it’s the one you just said.” Sean remarked.

The entire time they were parked, the group had been looking out the driver side window for the appearance of the Electric Mayhem bus, the other DeLorean, or Doc Hopper’s gang. All of the sudden, two heads popped into views, startling them all. After the shock, they realized it was Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. “Greetings, travelers!” Bunsen said through the closed window.

Bunsen and Beaker showing up near the DeLorean was one accident that Angela did not anticipate on happening; she was hardly prepared for this meeting with the two 1979 versions of the Muppet scientist and his assistant, thus having no idea what to do when they appeared. Since the two had seen the DeLorean, there was nothing else she could do than rolled the window down and greet them back, putting on a nervous smile. “Um…hello? Can we help you gentlemen?”

“As a matter of fact, you certainly can!” Bunsen exclaimed while eyeing the structure of the DeLorean. “This is a magnificent invention! Do you invent it yourself?”

Angela hesitantly responded. “Uh…yes, yes I did.”

“It’s not for sale, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Sean added.

“Oh, no, no.” Bunsen clarified. “We do not want to purchase your incredible machine. We’re merely curious to know of its function – if you’re willing to share with us, of course.” Beaker meeped in support of Bunsen’s request.

Angela swallowed hard; she could not take the risk in altering time any further than it had already been with a prolonged explanation of the time machine to Bunsen and Beaker, who were supposed to be inside their saloon/laboratory to meet with Kermit, Floyd Pepper, and Animal. That meeting would result in the event that would scare Doc Hopper out of business and the Muppets’ lives forever; if it did not take place, then the time shift in 1996 would result in a timeline that was even worse.

“Erm…how about we give you a call sometime?” Angela suggested.

“That would be splendid,” said Bunsen, whose response brought relief over the time travelers until he added, “if we had a phone.”

Quiet groans erupted from the time travelers. Phineas glanced over his digital wristwatch, and his eyes grew wide; immediately, he leaned over and whispered to Angela. “Doctor Brown, we have less than seven minutes.”

Hearing this estimation, McFly grew more concerned and whispered as well: “Doc, we gotta do something fast!”

Angela shook her head and decided to act quickly, whispering her plan to her companions. “We’ll just have to improvise on this. Phineas and Ferb, you boys go inside the saloon and make up a story about the DeLorean – don’t tell them that it can travel through time. Sean, you patrol around the town and look out for Tannen and the other DeLorean – stop her from doing whatever she did to alter this timeline. I’ll be on the lookout for the Kermit and the others in the bus – when I see them, I’ll let all of you know so that we can make sure events play out as they did originally.” She handed a walkie-talkie to both McFly and Phineas. “We’ll stay in touch with these.”

“Got it, Doc.” Sean acknowledged before he climbed out of the DeLorean along with Phineas and Ferb.

Bunsen and Beaker were taken by surprise when they watched Angela drive off in the DeLorean, leaving behind her fellow passengers. “W-Where is she going with that wonderful invention on wheels?”

“Uh…she’s just giving it a test run. She’ll be right back.” Phineas told the Muppet scientist. “In the meantime, we’ll tell you guys all about it. Any place we can go to, uh, talk?”

“Why, of course.” Bunsen said. “Follow us.”

As Bunsen and Beaker led Phineas and Ferb away, McFly disappeared behind another building to execute his part of their plan. He only hoped that it would turn out better than most of the plans he and Brown came up with during their previous adventures through time.

Wow! What an interesting story! Uh-oh! Somebody changed the future? Oh dear!
BTW: I can't believe I am the only one replying to this thread. If others are just viewing, why do they not bother commenting at all? So, why do I ask why?

BTW: I can't believe I am the only one replying to this thread. If others are just viewing, why do they not bother commenting at all? So, why do I ask why?

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I wish I knew. I used to know a lot of people who'd review my stories like you do on here, but they've become very shy lately (wonder why). Oh, well. Your reviews mean a lot and encourage me to keep writing this great story, which I have gotten a lot of great reviews on outside this forum! Thanks, muppetfan!

Phineas and Ferb felt like kids at a candy store with the notable exception being that they were kids, but they were inside what used to be a saloon that had turned into a fancy laboratory operated by Bunsen and Beaker – filled to the rim with incredible inventions by the two Muppets. It seemed that the boys came to the lab at just the right time for Bunsen and Beaker, as they were introducing their newest invention to them: Insta-Grow Pills.

“Neat!” Phineas exclaimed, admiring the large jar of white pills – their name crudely labeled on it in a black marker – that sat on the bar. “Ferb and I had a similar idea, except it was in the form of candy.”

“Why candy?” Bunsen inquired with great curiosity.

“Well, most kids don’t like regular medicine, so they take candy-flavored medicine…candy-flavored growth pills.”

Bunsen took a minute to ponder this idea of Phineas’s. “Candy-flavored growth pills? My goodness! The subject will get twice the enjoyment with such pills!” He then turned to his assistant and instructed, “Beaker, make a note of that. It’ll be something worth experimenting.”

Beaker acknowledged Bunsen’s instruction with a meep, retrieving a pencil and notepad from his lab coat to take note of the idea. While Beaker was doing so, Phineas heard static emerge from his walkie-talkie. The boys moved to the nearest corner for privacy and Phineas spoke into the handheld device. “This is Phineas. Come in.”

“Phineas, this is Doctor Brown.” Angela’s voice was soft but urgent over Phineas’s walkie-talkie. “Kermit and the others have just pulled in. You boys better step out of there now.”

“Ten-Four, Doctor Brown.” Phineas confirmed before switching off the walkie-talkie and turning back to Bunsen and Beaker. “It’s been really fun, guys; but Ferb and I have to go and find our friend – the one with the time…er…fusion car.”

Bunsen smiled. “Of course. Tell your companion that we wish her good luck on her invention. An environmentally-friendly vehicle that runs on water rather than gas sounds like a brilliant idea.”

Phineas did his best to stifle a chuckle on the fib he told Bunsen and Beaker about the DeLorean, which was anything but “environmentally-friendly.” Phineas and Bunsen exchanged goodbyes and handshakes, whilst Ferb and Beaker exchanged meeps and handshakes, before the boys exited the saloon through the rear. After watching the boys leave, Bunsen and Beaker suddenly heard their “Musical, Rotating Rain Barrel” go off outside, meaning that they had a visitor. They moved over to the saloon doors, seeing a startled frog outside standing near their latest invention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

​

Sitting upon the rooftop of a building near the saloon, Sean had a perfect view of the whole ghost town, including the street corner where the Electric Mayhem bus was parked. He saw Kermit enter the same saloon that Phineas and Ferb exited through the rear; the boys rushed over to Angela and the DeLorean, which was parked a few blocks away, out of sight from the main players of the current proceedings. There was still no sign of Joie Tannen and the other DeLorean – the one that had arrived there prior to McFly and his friends – and he notified Angela of this shortly after the Muppets’ arrival.

“Keep looking out for it, Sean.” Angela instructed over the walkie-talkie. “Tannen’s bound to be around here somewhere.”

Although he did not have a problem carry out the Doc’s command, there was still a strange feeling that the youth had about the situation. “I don’t know, Doc. I think there’s something off about…” He stopped as soon as he heard other vehicles approaching. Believing one of them to be the other DeLorean, he looked on intently as a black car and a green truck carrying a ruthless band of thugs arrived at the scene, parking a short distance away from the saloon and the Electric Mayhem bus. Upon witnessing the sudden appearance of this gang, Sean immediately alerted the others: “Doc Hopper and his gang are here!”

“Is Tannen with them?” Brown asked.

McFly eyed the emerging group more carefully; he did not see Joie Tannen with the men…and he did not see Doc Hopper either. Standing in Hopper’s place was an entirely different man – a slender, elderly man with greying blond hair and a business suit. Sean did not recognize the man; his appearance in this event stood out like a sore thumb. In response to her earlier inquiry, Sean told Angela: “Uh, Doc? Tannen’s not here, but we have another problem.”

“What’s wrong?” Angela asked.

Just as McFly was about to reply, he felt an arm suddenly go around his neck, robbing him of his speech as well as the grip he had on his walkie-talkie. The device fell out of his hand and shattered after falling over the edge of the rooftop and into the ground below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

​

Angela’s face registered great concern as she heard only static come over her walkie-talkie. “Sean, come in! Come in, Sean! Sean?!” There was no answer; and McFly’s last words before being cut off made her imagination go wild. “He’s in trouble! We’ve got to go find him!”

She knew that Phineas had a point; it was the reason they were there in the first place – to prevent whatever change occurred in that time. That was when an idea struck her mind that was beneficial to their mission. Stepping out of the DeLorean, she popped open the hood of the front trunk and reached inside to retrieve a futuristic device that appeared as a mini handheld satellite dish, complete with earphones. Once she was back inside the DeLorean with the device, Angela told the boys all about it: “This is an Ear Spy – one of the products from 2035 by Fusion Industries.”

Impressed by the future invention, Phineas asked, “What does it do?”

“It’ll allow me to tap into airwaves within a fifty-mile radius and listen into conversations that are taking place far away.” Angela informed.

“Doesn’t that promote eavesdropping?” Ferb inquired.

“Yes…yes, it does.” Angela answered, just as she placed on the earphones and held the mini dish in the direction of the saloon, homing in on the situation that was happening past it. As soon as she was on a clear frequency, she heard the befuddled voice of Kermit the Frog come over the earphones…

“W…Who are you? Where’s Hopper?”

The sinister voice of a man Angela did not recognize replied: “Doc Hopper’s not gonna make it to this party. You’re dealin’ with me now, Frog.”

“And who are you?”

There came a small cackle before a reply. “Name’s Richman…Tex Richman. And I’m only interested in one thing – putting an end to you and the rest of the Muppets!”

The threat from this new character startled Angela way more than his presence did. She removed her earphones right away and started the DeLorean back up, roaring down the street in breathtaking speed and doing her best not to go over eighty-eight. Clearly, this situation was worse than they anticipated.

Wow! I hear Jim's Kermit very clearly. But wait a minute, Tex Richman? The Tex Richman at the wrong timeline (1979) has an easier way to get rid of the Muppets. Uh-oh!

Other than that, this is really a great story! Post more if you have the time. Thank you!

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Surprise!

Yep. That's the Tex Richman we know from the start of The Muppets (before he got his laugh back), so you know he'll be gunning for Kermit and co. when they've barely even began their popularity - and what a better time to hit them, right? *maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh*

Thanks again for the review on Chapter Five, muppetfan! More will be on the way soon, I promise!

“I’m gonna make this plain and simple, Frog. I don’t care if you and your friends do any commercials or merchandise. That’s exactly the reason why I’m putting an end to all of you right here and now.”

Kermit stood nervous between his friends and Hopper’s gang, led by a man he had never met before in his life – but apparently this Tex Richman did meet him before, although he did remember where. “Look, I’m sure you have business with me from…something I’ve done to you…but whatever you have planned, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t involve my friends.” He gestured to the Muppets that stood behind him – Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Camilla, Rowlf, Bunsen, Beaker, and the Electric Mayhem band.

Richman snickered; a smug look crept across his face. “No chance! I’m taking your theater and, quite literally I might add, your future!” On this note, Richman gestured for Hopper’s gang to advance on the Muppets with their deadly weapons.

Kermit and his friends stood in shock, uncertain of what to do to escape from this situation. Before any of the thugs could have fired on the Muppets, there came a tremendous quake that halted the men from their vicious act. Everyone looked around in confusion until the roof of the nearby saloon broke open, allowing the ginormous head of Animal to bust through and let out a growl that shook the heavens. Witnessing the giant Animal’s terrifying appearance, Hopper’s gang of thugs – once intimidating men with equally intimidating weapons – ran out of the town.

Richman noticed them leaving and shouted, “Hey, you gutless cowards! Get back here! It’s just a dumb, oversized Muppet! We can still…”

The businessman stopped as soon as he massive dirt cloud billowed all around him upon the sudden arrival of a golden vehicle that he recognized as a DeLorean – a more supped-up version. The dirt cloud blinded Richman so much that he barely caught sight of the hands that reached out at him and pulled him into the DeLorean, driving him away from the chaotic scene. When the dirt cloud had settled, Kermit and his friends saw that Richman and Hopper’s gang had disappeared, signifying a great victory that they accepted with a cheer.

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Once it was far on the outskirts of the ghost town again, the DeLorean stopped right in the middle of the desert. The passenger side door opened and Richman was hurled out of the vehicle, landing in the dirt with a sickening thug. He angrily got back up and dusted off his already ruined suit, facing the DeLorean. “Alright! I wanna know who you think you are manhandling me like that! Show yourself!”

Answering Richman’s demand, the driver side door of the DeLorean opened and Angela stepped out. Phineas and Ferb stepped out from the side that Richman was thrown out from, and all three passengers stood side-by-side in front of Richman, who seemed slightly amused – though it was difficult to tell through his cold façade. Straightening his crooked necktie, he uttered, “I was expecting people who were grown and male!”

Phineas briefly reached into the DeLorean and showed a device that had eleven sets of plastic human hands that he made grasping motions with just by the pull of a trigger from the handle. “These are what we caught you with, sir. The Phineas & Ferb Handy-Dandy Machine! Good for practically everything, including getting to hard-to-reach places!”

“Don’t bother explaining technicalities to him, Phineas.” Angela said. “From that dumb look on his face, he wouldn’t know the first thing about technology.”

Brown’s harsh words cut like a knife at Richman, who glared at her and yelled, “And who are you, smart girl? I’ll have you know that I know a good deal about technology! I’ve been drilling oil long before you were in diapers!”

Angela was flattered by the way Richman addressed her like a child; that Rejuvenation Clinic she visited in 2035 truly did wonders for her appearance, making her real age practically indiscernible to anyone except for Sean McFly. “Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? You’re not from this time. Joie Tannen brought you here.”

“Yeah, she did.” Richman bluntly admitted. “And I should be wiping her out for abandoning me like she did just now! I had that frog exactly where I wanted him – scared and defenseless with no future to take away the one I have planned for Richman Oil! No Muppets, no Muppet Theater! That would’ve left plenty of land for me to prosper from!”

Brown put her hands on her hips and grinned. “Well, it looks like your little plan failed, because the Muppets are on their way to Hollywood right now.”

Richman grinned. “There are still other ways I can ruin the Muppets’ future.”

There suddenly came the loud roar of an engine in the distance and all eyes looked to the sound, finding the other DeLorean – driven by Joie Tannen – speeding towards the one currently parked in their spot. When the other DeLorean neared the prime one, it slowed down a bit as its passenger side door flung open and Sean McFly fell out onto the dirt. As his body tumbled across the ground, the other DeLorean came to an abrupt halt long enough for Tannen to shout to Richman from behind the wheel. “Richman! Get your butt in the car!”

“This is the last order I’m taking from you, Tannen!” Richman bellowed as he rushed over to the car and hopped in, closing the passenger side door as he had done so.

Angela, Phineas, and Ferb watched powerlessly as Joie’s DeLorean sped away, kicking in at eighty-eight and vanishing from 1979 in less than a minute. They would have stopped her had they not been so concerned with Sean, who painfully picked himself up off the ground. Angela, being the most concerned for him, asked: “Sean, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he hoarsely acknowledged. “Tannen got the jump on me. That woman’s a lot stronger than she looks!”

Even though he was glad to see McFly was not completely damaged, Phineas was still troubled. “I’m not so sure we’ve corrected the timeline after that Richman guy showed up. Where’s Doc Hopper?”

Angela frowned. “I think Joie made more trips through time than we have anticipated. God only knows when she is now.”

“Actually, I do know when she is, Doc.” Sean told Angela. “That butthead wasn’t smart enough to blindfold me when she took me by force, so I got a good look at the time circuit readout before she threw me out of the DeLorean. She’s heading to November 23rd, 2011.”

Angela, Phineas, and Ferb all smiled after hearing the time of their next destination. However, Angela’s smile dropped once she realized something off about that particular destination for Tannen. “How can she go into a future that she no longer exists in?”

McFly shrugged. “You’ve got me, Doc. I’m still trying to figure out how she managed to screw up the Muppets’ timeline this bad.”

Phineas and Ferb glanced to the DeLorean in listening to Brown and McFly’s quick exchange. It was at that moment when he spotted a prism situated within the time machine’s rear construct, right in front of the “Mr. Fusion” unit. Pointing to the prism, he alerted Angela and Sean of it: “Maybe that’s how.”

Brown and McFly turned and looked at the prism with Phineas and Ferb. Angela was exceptionally surprised to see it there, not having spotted it before their departure from 1996. She walked right up to it and attempted to extricate it from the rear construct but immediately received a mild jolt of electricity at her fingertips, causing her to jump back from the complex device installed to her time machine. “Ouch! How in the name of Albert Einstein did that get there?”

“You mean you didn’t put it there yourself?” Sean inquired.

Angela shook her head. “This isn’t part of my new design. It must’ve been installed sometime during Joie’s trip through time.” Looking more closely and carefully at the prism, she saw how it sparked every two seconds with the same electricity that shocked her. “Whatever this is and whomever put it here made it with one purpose.”

“What’s that, Doctor Brown?” Phineas asked.

“To permit paradoxes.” Angela answered.

McFly smirked. “Well…something like this is good, right? I mean we always fretted about creating paradoxes when we went back to 1955 and running into our past selves. With this thing, we can revisit times scot-free, right?”

Brown turned to the youth, giving him a stern look. “Sean, a universe filled with paradoxes is far worse than one with even the smallest paradox. If Tannen has been traveling through time with this prism intact, then she could’ve possibly set our universe’s destruction in place already.”

Sean felt his body grow cold. “H-How will we know it’s already happened?” He looked to his right hand. “Will we all be erased from existence?”

Angela shrugged. “Possibly that or certain events in the past, present, and future can be rewritten unexpectedly. We could forget minor details of our lives, major landmarks could shift around from place to place, or…” Her eyes grew wide as she remembered one element from her conversation with Tex Richman. She jumped back into the DeLorean and glanced at her reflection the dashboard rearview mirror. It was just as she feared: she regressed from a woman that looked 36 to a woman that looked 29. “Great Scott.”